Semantic data refers to data that can be interpreted meaningfully by a machine without human intervention. A semantic data model is typically a software engineering model based on relationships between stored symbols, or objects, and the real world. Data is organized based on binary models of objects, usually in groups of three parts: two objects and a relationship between the two objects. For example, a data organization that represents a cup sitting on a table might look like “cup table.” The objects, i.e., cup and table, are interpreted with regards to their relationship, i.e., sitting on. The data is organized linearly, and the position of the objects reveals to software that the cup is sitting on the table and not the other way around. Accordingly, semantic data systems are designed to represent the real world as accurately as possible within the data set, and objects in the data set are organized linearly and hierarchically to give meanings to what they represent.
In a cloud-computing environment, data used for management, control, communication and other applications may be sent along with general messages that are transmitted over the network. Such data is typically short, and is discretely affixed to or embedded in the carrying message.